Tokyo — Ordinary carbon steel orders booked by Japanese mills in June rose 1% year on

 year and were up 1.3% from May at 5.59 million mt, data released Thursday by the Japan 

Iron & Steel Federation showed. 

JISF officials responsible for the data were not available for comment Friday, but a Tokyo-

based trader said that domestic demand has been firm, supporting orders. 

Orders for domestic supply totaled 3.66 million mt, up 3.1% on year and edging up 0.2% fro

m May, while orders for export dipped 2.7% on year but were up 3.5% from May at 1.93 milli

on mt. 

Of the domestic orders in June, those for construction rose 9.7% on year and were up 4.8% 

from May at 987,000 mt, and for manufacturing fell 2.9% on year and were down 2.8% on 

month at 1.54 million mt. 

"Orders by auto-related customers decreased but not by a lot; we don't think demand from 

auto has decreased," the trader said. 

By product, orders for H-beams in June rose 26.8% on year and were stable from May at 

332,000 mt, for bars rose 2.3% on year and were up 5.5% on month at 654,000 mt, and 

for HRC fell 3.9% on year but edged up 0.4% from May at 1.75 million mt. 

Another trader in Tokyo said construction demand may increase in the coming months for 

reconstruction works after recent natural disasters in western Japan.